What is the biggest problem you face in this school? Why did you choose to come to the GT Academy? What time during school is the hardest for you? (hall change, a class, gym, lunch, etc.) How do you usually get through your hardest part of school? Do you have a special locker schedule? What things get in your way at school? (time, rules, people,etc.) How could any of these things be helped? What items could be added on to make things at school easyer? (Binders, lockers, hallways, classrooms, etc.) Why would you want to change that? Tell me about a time when that posed a problem for you. Tell me about a time when something at school could have helped. Do you enjoy technology? How are your expectations of 6th grade different or similar to what is happening now? What are your reactions to the other middle schoolers and the different classes (rank)? How are your homework levels? How are you and your locker working together? Do you have any relationship problems? How does that make you feel? What type of technology would you like to be given to use at school? Do you feel as if the non-GT kids are rude to you? How do you generally feel about them? Do you have any problems with lunch? How do you feel about 8th graders? How do you feel about the homework load? What are your main problems? What goes on in your bus? How do feel about it? Why? Is there anything you would like to change about your commute to school? How do you feel about changing in PE? What would you like to add to your learning experience in the classroom? Is there anything you would like to take out? Do you have any stories about the bus? Non-GT kids? What are your interests?
Why!?!?!
Define
Needs more time to do his work. (This is the problem we chose as his main problem.) The hallways are too crowded. There isn't a lot of technology. (Not a huge problem, just a thought.) Math is really hard for him.
We chose this challenge because it was his main problem. He has baseball practice after school so it is very hard for him to finish all of his homework. He needed a way that he could have more time to do homework or he needed less homework. But, homework is very important so we decided that we were going to create a way for him to have more time intsead of less work. If this problem is solved it will help a lot of students because a lot of kids have after school activities just like James so it would be easy for them to complete their homework. This way they won't have to stay up late or get in trouble for not doing their homework.
Ideate
Conveyor belt hallways- This Idea solved James problem of the hallways being to crowded and that it could possibly be the cause of him getting a tardy. i-pad binders and pre homework flash drives- this gives him time to do all of this homework when he has time and not just cram lots of it into one night so that he could plan ahead along with his busy schedule. Olympic sanction- this is already implemented into the school and could be of great use to him and his schedule and also give him a little more time to do everything that the needs to get done but still be able to play his sports. Virtual Lessons- because he has trouble in math these lessons could be helpful for review. The lessons could also help him because school would be cut shorter and there would be no power points or presentations he would just have to watch the video of the teacher presenting it and come in the next day.
Prototype
These were the four iPads we did for our project. There is one showing a homework catalog, and the other screens show what can be stored inside it.
Feedback
What can we improve?- ways for him to receive more information from his teacher What are other ways to make this app easier to access?- multiple sources Is there anything you think could be added?- Teacher e-mailing functionality How do you feel about the apps navigation?- great How would this app make school easier than paper and pencil? How do you feel about this app in general?- Very useful.
After talking to our client James and recieving feedback on our prototype we had decided that we needed to change a handful of the portions to the app to better fufill his needs. When editing our prototype we had added a email the teacher button so that when he needs more help on an assignment he can email the teacher to ask quick questions while he is working. Another thing we added was something that he had noticed was that after taking his notes he had no way to review them. Because of his insight we added a review notes button so that he can see what he types and now can review what he is doing.
Describe at least 5 insights, epiphanies, reframes (big or little) you had about working on this project. Please include what led you to these i.e. what fun stuff you did to uncover them?
How did you work as a team?
What was your best/worst team experience? Well our team all worked pretty well together but the worst experience that we had probably had was when our interview didn't go very well and he gave us very basic information with no specific emphasis on any one problem. Even though our team had some problems in all areas of the process we worked through them and one of our best moments was probably in the ideation phase and we meshed well as a team and we flowed out ideas even though the main problem wasn't very apparent from the information that we had received from our client.
When was your team process strong? Our team process was the strongest when we actually collaborated versus splitting off in many different directions. We actually started making 2 different prototypes but decided on this one as the final product. This enabled us to always have a final product and be more productive.
James __
Delphi, Sierra, Aaron, and EricThe Homework Catalog
Empathy
What is the biggest problem you face in this school?Why did you choose to come to the GT Academy?
What time during school is the hardest for you? (hall change, a class, gym, lunch, etc.)
How do you usually get through your hardest part of school?
Do you have a special locker schedule?
What things get in your way at school? (time, rules, people,etc.)
How could any of these things be helped?
What items could be added on to make things at school easyer? (Binders, lockers, hallways, classrooms, etc.)
Why would you want to change that?
Tell me about a time when that posed a problem for you.
Tell me about a time when something at school could have helped.
Do you enjoy technology?
How are your expectations of 6th grade different or similar to what is happening now?
What are your reactions to the other middle schoolers and the different classes (rank)?
How are your homework levels?
How are you and your locker working together? Do you have any relationship problems?
How does that make you feel?
What type of technology would you like to be given to use at school?
Do you feel as if the non-GT kids are rude to you?
How do you generally feel about them?
Do you have any problems with lunch?
How do you feel about 8th graders?
How do you feel about the homework load?
What are your main problems?
What goes on in your bus?
How do feel about it?
Why?
Is there anything you would like to change about your commute to school?
How do you feel about changing in PE?
What would you like to add to your learning experience in the classroom?
Is there anything you would like to take out?
Do you have any stories about the bus?
Non-GT kids?
What are your interests?
Why!?!?!
Define
Needs more time to do his work. (This is the problem we chose as his main problem.)The hallways are too crowded.
There isn't a lot of technology. (Not a huge problem, just a thought.)
Math is really hard for him.
We chose this challenge because it was his main problem. He has baseball practice after school so it is very hard for him to finish all of his homework. He needed a way that he could have more time to do homework or he needed less homework. But, homework is very important so we decided that we were going to create a way for him to have more time intsead of less work. If this problem is solved it will help a lot of students because a lot of kids have after school activities just like James so it would be easy for them to complete their homework. This way they won't have to stay up late or get in trouble for not doing their homework.
Ideate
Conveyor belt hallways- This Idea solved James problem of the hallways being to crowded and that it could possibly be the cause of him getting a tardy.i-pad binders and pre homework flash drives- this gives him time to do all of this homework when he has time and not just cram lots of it into one night so that he could plan ahead along with his busy schedule.
Olympic sanction- this is already implemented into the school and could be of great use to him and his schedule and also give him a little more time to do everything that the needs to get done but still be able to play his sports.
Virtual Lessons- because he has trouble in math these lessons could be helpful for review. The lessons could also help him because school would be cut shorter and there would be no power points or presentations he would just have to watch the video of the teacher presenting it and come in the next day.
Prototype
Feedback
What can we improve?- ways for him to receive more information from his teacherWhat are other ways to make this app easier to access?- multiple sources
Is there anything you think could be added?- Teacher e-mailing functionality
How do you feel about the apps navigation?- great
How would this app make school easier than paper and pencil?
How do you feel about this app in general?- Very useful.
After talking to our client James and recieving feedback on our prototype we had decided that we needed to change a handful of the portions to the app to better fufill his needs. When editing our prototype we had added a email the teacher button so that when he needs more help on an assignment he can email the teacher to ask quick questions while he is working. Another thing we added was something that he had noticed was that after taking his notes he had no way to review them. Because of his insight we added a review notes button so that he can see what he types and now can review what he is doing.
Describe at least 5 insights, epiphanies, reframes (big or little) you had about working on this project. Please include what led you to these i.e. what fun stuff you did to uncover them?
How did you work as a team?
What was your best/worst team experience? Well our team all worked pretty well together but the worst experience that we had probably had was when our interview didn't go very well and he gave us very basic information with no specific emphasis on any one problem. Even though our team had some problems in all areas of the process we worked through them and one of our best moments was probably in the ideation phase and we meshed well as a team and we flowed out ideas even though the main problem wasn't very apparent from the information that we had received from our client.
When was your team process strong? Our team process was the strongest when we actually collaborated versus splitting off in many different directions. We actually started making 2 different prototypes but decided on this one as the final product. This enabled us to always have a final product and be more productive.
What would you do differently next time?